Minutes:
Members were reminded that following the presentation of the Internal Audit six monthly update on unfavourable audit opinions in June 2018, the Audit Committee had agreed to call in the Head of Streetscene to provide assurance that action would be taken to make the necessary improvements and how the implementation of actions would be followed up. This was in relation to the audit of the Agency/Overtime – Refuse which resulted in a second Unsatisfactory audit opinion.
The Head of Streetscene noted that he had been called in to Audit Committee just over a year ago in a background of 7 heads of service in 5 years. At last year’s Audit Committee he had explained that there would not be a change straight away. The whole area had now been restructured – 4 managers with new job descriptions. The Service Manager, Waste & Cleansing had put together responses to Audit actions. A new Team Manager was in place under the role. The four team managers’ roles had been changed with more accountability, more emphasis on the budget, health and safety and compliance. Team manager and supervisor roles had been amended so it was explicit they did not get overtime.
There needed to be some recognition that some of the central policies did not work. Overtime had always been historically high with Saturday working but within that there was some need for overtime – eg bank holidays, trucks breaking down. Overtime had reduced by 80% in the last 2 years which was felt to be a good improvement. However, that has led to issues as there has been a need to employ an additional supervisor as it is not possible to do the work without overtime. Miscollections were going up as there was no overtime which needed addressing.
The budget was a major concern. When the Head of Streetscene started in post the budget was over by £2m. Last year it was broadly level. He was optimistic that good strides had been made over the first year but was also aware of historic problems with his department and had been provided with support to address that. Stability was needed. Progress had been made but there was still a lot to do and it was felt the changes would be made over the next two years.
Discussions included the following:
· What does the Head of Streetscene mean when he says policies were not suitable? - The Head of Streetscene responded by saying perhaps not suitable but a discussion with HR was needed as in some areas some of the policies may need to reflect nuances on direct operational services.
· Policy should be there but as a guide – if overtime is needed as long as there is a budget the policy should enable things to be done. If the policy is stopping the department doing things Audit Committee could provide support.
· It was appreciated that things would take a while to have an effect but the two year timescale was queried. It was noted there were issues in the department but having said that the Head of Streetscene had agreed where the weaknesses were and it came to a point where the critical items audit had identified could be prioritised? – The Head of Streetscene responded that over the next two years he was still expecting Audit would still be going into areas where not everything was perfect. Areas were being targeted but there was a natural lag but it should be possible to address follow up actions better.
· Are the issues more monetary or systems/people issues? – The Head of Streetscene responded that the issue was that there had been a lot of changes and not all the systems were in place which took time. It was felt there was now a better structure. Now the structure was in place the focus was on systems to get them all working effectively.
· In order to support going forwards the Audit Committee could propose issues being escalated to the Chief Executive in order to provide more support on a day to day basis to stop repeatedly calling in the Head of Streetscene.
Agreed
1. The Service Manager, Waste & Cleansing (SGL) to email a report of responses to Audit actions to democratic services for circulation to Audit Committee.